Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Christmas Eve: Celebration with anticipation

We soaked up the moments like a sponge with Christmas in our new home. Eric has never been present with so many new toys all at once. We dined on Nana Mary's eggplant parm recipe and watch the cousins (Sam,Eric,and Maylen) tear paper and oogle over each others gifts. A great time was had by all (until of course it was time to go to bed).







We soaked up the moments like a sponge with Christmas in our new home. Eric has never been present with so many new toys all at once. We dined on Nana Mary's eggplant parm recipe and watch the cousins (Sam,Eric,and Maylen) tear paper and oogle over each others gifts. A great time was had by all (until of course it was time to go to bed).

Monday, December 22, 2008

Before Christmas....

Turkey Time

We better share with you some our fabulous Thanksgiving activities. These days Christmas season seems to start the day after Halloween making Thanksgiving complete overshadowed.

Thanksgiving (and the Pilgrims) really deserve to be the center of attention on their day. After all, we have so much to be thankful for.

This Thanksgiving we didn't need to ask every family member for a history and physical prior to our visit which really took a load off. Actually, it took A LOT of loads off. This holiday season starting with Turkey day we have been able to interact with the world pretty much like everyone else does and not shield Eric from every runny nose, cough, or otherwise especially since he is now the one with the runny nose. I can actually be in the same room with someone who has a cold with going into a panic. This is good news and has allowed us to enjoy the company of family and friends and let Eric really explore. He loves parties and now says, "Yeaahh, Party!" accompanied by many claps.

We spent Thanksgiving weekend at Oma and Opa's house on the lake. Uncle Susie (as Eric says, Uncle Mike, Maylen, and Sam were all present. Sam and Eric ran circles around each other and loved it. Here are some photos:

Grass Valley toy store with cousins


Early Christmas suitcases from Oma. Maylen is sporting the orange one


Watching movies with Maylen, Sam and Julia & CJ Hoever

Monday, December 15, 2008

Visit to Chico

We had a great visit to Aunt Courtney and Uncle Sean's house. Eric was delighted to have not one, not two, but five doggies to play with. Sean and Courtney had a night of doggie duty with the 3 family dogs and two of their own. Everyone got along superbly





Eric also thrilled to have access to many of Sean's disney movies. Staying with Aunt Courtney and Uncle Sean is COOL. He is still talking about it including saying night, night to Bubby (AKA Buffy dog) and Rocky.

I also want to throw a shout out to Aunt Courtney for giving me the best haircut I have ever had. I know that Sean says this every time she cuts my hair so how is she to really know. Well, I am tell you write here for the world to read that Eric LOVES my doo and so do I.




Aaah Chico

Saturday, December 13, 2008

WOW



Last night Momma and Dadda had a rare night out on the town. It was Clif Bar & Company"s annual holiday party. We wined, dined, and danced at a hip art gallery on the west side of Oakland.

Over my eight years working at Clif, they have taken good care of us. The friendship and camaraderie truly made itself evident when many of these friends provided the support that only local friends can during tough times. We were reminiscing with a few of them last night about at the party about when Eric was born and suddenly realized that it was two years to the date of targeted due date and two years that he has been lighting up our home with his smiles and energy. WOW - the time we spent in the hospital with him is so far from our minds today that this once significant date nearly slipped past us.

Eric is now TWO, no more age adjusting by subtracting three month, no more stuttering when someone asks me how old he is, and of course no more sheltering him from every runny nose on the planet. He repeats everything and it getting clearer with every new word. He knows his A B C's and can count to 10 in English and Spanish. He loves tennis, guitars, trains, trucks, and tools. He weighs 25 lbs and is about 33 inches tall. His show size just jumped to 7 and we buy him 2T clothes these days. He is as 2 as 2 can be and then some and we love it.

Here is a pic of Eric and Dadda enjoying our backyard in early November. It was one of those spectacularly warm fall days.